Audit Number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
Audit period | 19–25 November 2007 | 14–20 April 2008 | 4–10 August 2008 | 9–15 February 2009 | 3–9 August 2009 | 4–10 January 2010 | 10–16 January 2011 |
CLR communication pathway | Manual | Manual | Mixed manual and automated | Automated | Automated | Automated | Automated |
Total CLR | 210 | 202 | 188 | 309 | 329 | 309 | 321 |
Manual calls (%) | 164 (100) | 89 (100) | Not meaningful | 153 (58) | 104 (47) | 116 (51) | 102 (46) |
CLR communicated directly to physician (%) | 113 (69) | 62 (70) | Not meaningful | 245 (93) | 175 (79) | 224 (98) | 217 (98) |
Excluded CLR (%) | 46 (21) | 113 (55) | 52 (27) | 45 (14) | 107 (32) | 80 (25) | 99 (30) |
Figures represent numbers with percentages in brackets.
Audit 3 was held during the transition period from manual to automated pathway, which meant that some CLR were reported manually while others utilised the automated pathway. As such, the percentage of manual calls and the percentage of CLR communicated directly to physician were primarily influenced by the type of CLR; hence, these data were not meaningful in the context of this paper.
CLR, critical laboratory results.